Reviewed by Stephen: 9 out of 10.

The stakes are higher, the battles are longer, the scale is larger; and Infidel, the second story in The Lost Books, doesn’t waste a page getting there with most of the book being one big heart-pounding adventure.

The reader is given a chapter of recap (the final chapter in Chosen) before being thrust headfirst into another adventure. Johnis learns that his mother is alive and has been taken captive as a member of the Horde, and sets out on a daring rescue-mission to attempt to save her. What follows is one of the most intense plot lines I’ve read in a very long time. A welcome relief, indeed!

After finishing two books of The Lost Books series, I’m still hard pressed to find a flaw. The pacing was perfect, the suspense authentic, and the characters resoundingly genuine. Unlike some Dekker stories where the endings feel rushed in the final two chapters, Infidel leaves itself plenty of headroom at the end of the book for a satisfying ending which still sets you up for the sequel.

The connections between the redemptive nature of the gospel and Infidel are incredibly moving. We are introduced to a new character in Infidel who stands between Johnis and his mother, and she is apart of the Horde—a Scab. Under normal circumstances the Forest Guard are sworn to kill any Horde member instantaneously, but Johnis finds his heart moved toward her in compassion in the same way Jesus’ heart was moved in compassion for us.

Like I said, I’m struggling to fault Infidel. I do like to read other authors between Dekker as his style can get quite familiar if you read too much of it, but I can guarantee it would be the same for any author writing such a big story. Regardless, The Lost Books are fast on their way to my all-time favourite books list. Here’s to hoping the next four books are even better.

Reviewed by Stephen: 10 out of 10.

“Four novels. Two worlds. One story.”

Black
An incredible story of evil and rescue, betrayal and love, and a terrorist threat unlike anything the human race has ever known. A virulent evil has been unleashed upon the people of Earth. The only man who can stop it is Thomas Hunter, an unlikely hero whose life is stretched between two worlds. Every time he falls asleep in one reality, he awakes in the other. Soon Thomas no longer knows which reality is real. Yet it quickly becomes apparent that his choices in each world impact the other–and that the fates of both rest in his hands.

Red
In one world, Thomas Hunter is a battle-scarred general commanding an army of primitive warriors. In the other, he’s racing to outwit sadistic terrorists intent on creating global chaos through an unstoppable virus. Thomas must find a way to change history–or face the destruction of two worlds.

White
Thomas Hunter has only days to survive two separate realms of danger, deceit, and destruction. The fates of both worlds now rest on his unique ability to shift realities through his dreams. Thomas and The Circle must quickly decide who they can trust–both with their own lives and the fate of millions. And neither the terror of Black nor the treachery of Red can prepare Thomas for the forces aligned against The Circle in White.

Green
When least expected, a twenty-four year old named Thomas Hunter fell asleep in our world and woke up in that future Black Forest. A gateway was opened for Teeleh to ravage the land. Devastated by the ruin, Thomas Hunter and his Circle swore to fight the dark scourge until their dying breath. But now The Circle has lost hope. Samuel, Thomas Hunter’s cherished son, has turned his back on his father. He gathers the dark forces to wage a final war. Thomas is crushed and desperately seeks a way back to our reality to find the one elusive hope that could save them all.

“This is the series I was born to write. Dive Deep” — Ted Dekker

It has been over a year since I first dove into the adventure that was previously entitled The Circle Trilogy. Now, many months and a new title — The Circle Series — later, and I have begun the adventure again. Not only that, but I now wholeheartedly agree with the above quote from Dekker himself, that this was indeed the story he was born to write. Not since The Shack have I been so completely immersed, challenged and changed by a work of fiction.

The Circle Series now makes up 4 of the whopping fourteen books in the epic collection known as The Books of History Chronicles (Black, Red, White – Showdown, Saint, Sinner – Chosen, Infidel, Renegade, Chaos, Lunatic, Elyon – Skin, House). The magnificent scope of this interlocking, interweaving story is so daring and so ambitious that it quite literally has my mind spinning, even weeks after finishing Book Zero of The Circle Series: The Beginning and the End. Also known as Green.

I’ve read a lot of Dekker books, and this series is classic Ted at his best. The story is so moving, the characters so real, the plot so richly deep that after getting to the end of the series you don’t want it to end. And, it doesn’t . . . yet. I’m going to have to tread very carefully here in order to talk about this without dropping any story spoilers, but yes, in my opinion I don’t think this is the end. Right now the story is left as a completely seamless circle (as the name of the series implies in a clever and pun-like way), but there is so much room for Dekker to now branch away from that circle and form a kind of infinite figure-eight. The rumours over in The Circleare that he will in fact do this with his just-finished book, Immanuel’s Veins (also known as IV), due to hit the stores in March 2010.

Many fans have been left with a slightly sour taste in their mouths with the way Ted ended Green and brought the whole series “full circle”, but like I said, I highly doubt he will leave it where it is, but in true Ted Dekker fashion, I think he will bring a completely new thread out of it: the most unlikely one people will think of.

In an interview over at TitleTrakk.com, Ted is asked the question: “…why [do] you think people are connecting so strongly to this particular series?”

To which Ted responds with quite astounding insight, “It certainly isn’t because of me, I can tell you that. It’s because I’m tapping into an irresistible story, which is the story of our own redemptive history.”

Indeed, that same redemptive history that we, as Christians, grow so accustomed to that we forget just how mind-blowing it really is until we see it reworded and refashioned in new, metaphorical terms. If you only ever read four Dekker books in your life, make them Black, Red, White and Green of The Circle Series.

Dive deep.

Reviewed by Stephen: 10 out of 10.

As foretold by ancient prophets, an apocalypse destroyed Earth during the twenty-first century. But two thousand years later Elyon set upon the earth a new Adam. This time, however, He gave humanity an advantage. What was once unseen became seen. It was good and it was called…Green. Enter an apocalyptic story like none you have read. A story with links to our own history so shocking that you will forget you are in another world at all. Welcome to Green. Book Zero.

If you read my review of The Circle Trilogy earlier this year then you would probably understand my undulated excitement when Ted Dekker announced that he would be writing another book for The Circle Series entitled Green.

As with any series you hold in the highest regard, there can be a niggling suspicion that a new addition to the scene will not only spoil the series for you, but also lower the credibility and enjoyment of the other books in your mind as well. Thankfully, Green was not one of those sour cases . . . for the most part. New characters, new twists, and a whole new life and dimension to the already flourishing Circle were just the start of the positives to this book; but, and yes, there’s a but . . . there was also a very strange ending to the Circle saga. Was I disappointed with said ending? I’ll get to that soon.

The insights in this book run as deep as Elyon’s lakes, and were not only a great encouragement to read, but also a tremendous revelation as well. The critics have accused this book many times for containing far too much glorification of evil and not dwelling enough on the light. Hm. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: In order to truly appreciate the light, one must first realise the depth and inescapable nature of the pit of evil they are, or were, in. If you see the antidote without first seeing the shocking disease, you will probably scorn the cure.

Getting back to my thoughts on the ending of Green, I am very much at an impasse. At the end of Green, coming “full circle” as Ted calls it has left a somewhat chaotic response from fans. Many object to the ending and its surface implications. Without giving away too much of critical value to the story, and a reader’s initial impressions thereof, I simply cannot decide whether the ending is Ted’s biggest blunder or his biggest stroke of brilliance. It took a month of mulling to truly get my head around said ending, and my thoughts now to the virgin reader would be to tackle the end of Green with an open mind and to try to look beyond the glaringly obvious into a completely new world. Think outside the square to a circle that ends, yet does not. You might hate the ending, you might love it. Either way, the book still gets a 10-star rating from me. The story is just that good.

Speaking of books (funny to be doing that on a book review site, I know), I have not read a book that I could not put down in quite a long time. Green was definitely a welcome, furious-page-turning change. If you’re looking for the best kind of suspense–that which is truly suspenseful while maintaining significantly deep spiritual parallels–then look no further than Green and the rest of The Circle Series.

“Dive deep into a world of colour. Of Green, of Black, of Red, of White.”

Reviewed by Stephen: 6.5 out of 10.

If writing ability alone determined the rating I gave this book, then it would, without a doubt, get a straight 10 out of 10. The creative descriptions, ingenious similes, down-to-earth dialogue, cliff-hanger chapter conclusions and cunning storyline were all highlights while reading Comes A Horseman. Robert Liparulo is, as one person so fittingly put it, a writer of immense talent.

In the opening chapter we are catapulted straight into a fast-paced, action-packed assassination scene. Having a soft spot for books that propel you directly into an action sequence, I had high hopes that Horseman would climb its way into being one of my all-time favourite books. This high-octane quickly ebbed, however, as can be expected in a novel to make room for character development in a situation not under pressure. But along with the waning energy came the lengthy, and yes, sometimes tedious descriptions.

By the end of Horseman, I had developed a bit of a love-hate relationship with Liparulo’s in-depth descriptions within the story he was telling. On the one hand, I appreciated, and was even sometimes astounded, at the creativity he injected into whatever and whoever he described. You could more firmly grab a hold of the intricacies of the scene and become better adjusted to what was happening. On the other hand, these same descriptions quite often tripped up the story and caused what I would call ‘reader slogging’, where you as a reader must wade through the hard yards of the first half of the book to get to the stage where you can’t put it down.

My biggest criticism with this book was the stage of ‘not being able to put it down’ not making itself apparent until the final 5 chapters. This ‘reader slogging’ would also, unlike other thrillers, keep popping its head up, even so much as during a fight scene. Halfway through an intense hand-to-hand combat with a ‘walking bicep’ you would be thrust into some childhood memory, flashback or training technique learned in the past. To illustrate my point further, the character wouldn’t just take his shoes off; he would untie his shoelaces, take his shoes off and carry them with the ring and middle fingers of his left hand. Sometimes detail is excellent; but sometimes you just want to cut the talk, skip to the good parts.

This story, I would have to say, is not one for the queasy or faint of heart; it is quite a gruesome book, and Liparulo makes no apologies for not shying away from gory details. However, he does have a strong underlying sense of morality and a clever portrayal of Christianity that is so real and so compelling that it can’t possibly turn away an unbelieving reader. These things, along with Liparulo’s fresh take on the events surrounding the end-times as described in the book of Revelation, were what reconciled the reading of this book to me as being worthwhile.

My final thoughts would be that, although I didn’t enjoy the story as much as I would have liked to, Horseman is still worth the read — even if only for the astounding writing and thoughts that come from the hand and mind of Liparulo. It gave me a fresh glimpse of just how horrifying evil can be, and the tremendous hope that we, as Christians, have in Christ.

Liparulo certainly has a strikingly unique story with Horseman, which, in a world of copy-cats and lookalikes, can always be appreciated. But, by all means, please enlighten me if you understand how the story and back cover description ties in with the title of the book. Maybe I just missed something.

Click here to visit Liparulo’s site.

Reviewed by Jon: 10 out of 10.

The Paradise War

From the dreaming spires of Oxford, Lewis Gillies drives north to seek a mythical creature in a misty glen in Scotland. Expecting little more than a weekend diversion, Lewis finds himself in a mystical place where two worlds meet, in the time-between-times—and in the heart of a battle between good and evil.

The Silver Hand

The great king, Meldryn Mawr, is dead, and his kingdom lies in ruins. Treachery and brutality rule the land, and Albion is the scene of an epic struggle for the throne. Lewis Gillies returns as Llew, seeking the true meaning behind a mysterious prophecy—the making of a true king and the revealing of a long awaited champion: Silver Hand.

The Endless Knot

Fires rage in Albion: strange, hidden fires, dark-flamed, invisible to the eye. Llew Silver Hand is High King of Albion, but now the Brazen Man has defied his sovereignty and Llew must journey to the Foul Land to redeem his greatest treasure. The last battle begins, and the myths, passions, and heroism of an ancient people come to life as Llew faces his greatest test yet.

In the same way that The Circle Trilogy marks what I would unreservedly say is the magnum opus of Ted Dekker’s work, the Song of Albion captured me in a likewise manner, and although I have yet to read more of Stephen Lawhead’s work, this series carries with it a certain quality that seems to speak “exemplification of the authors’ work” (you can find my in-depth reviews of each individual novel through the links above).

Pacing in this series was near on perfection. I say near perfection because the train ride seemed to stagger and lag for just a little bit too long in the beginning of The Endless Knot. However, when the story picked itself back up off the floor, it soared to the final and satisfying conclusion with terrific speed. The ending is certainly no Chronicles of Narnia, but it is satisfying nonetheless and was not spoiled by a six-inch deep epilogue, extro/outro, afterword, conclusion or author’s note.

The writing of Lawhead is quite unlike the style of any other Christian author I have read in the sense that it feels more like [Lawhead] is a Christian and an author as two separate entities as opposed to someone who specifically lets morals and message directly influence their writing. This is where it comes down to the reader’s own preferences as to what they personally prefer to spend time reading, because both types have a place; but if you get a message from Lawhead’s writing, the chances are you brought your own implications to the table yourself, and the themes in the book only strengthened what you were already wanting to harvest from the story.

Stephen Lawhead paints with an uninhibited, true-to-life brush made all the more unique by his expansive vocabulary and attention to striking details. His descriptions border on ingenious and it seems he always makes every effort to visit the settings and locations he writes in and the quality of the research shines through because of that. If this is the type of writing you are looking for to bring to life a hearty adventure story, then this series won’t leave you disappointed.

Click here to visit Lawhead’s site.

Reviewed by Stephen: 9.5 out of 10.

Book two in the Song of Albion trilogy sees us continuing the epic story of Lewis (now the warrior Llew) and Simon (Siawn Hy) in their journeys in the Otherworld, Albion.The action in this second installment is like a flickering fire that Lawhead dumped a shovel-full of coal onto.

With all the hard work of explaining how the Otherworld works over and done with in the first book, Lawhead has room to simply tell the story, and tell it with such conviction and such ingenious descriptions that it becomes very, very real. One chapter into The Silver Hand and I was hooked on one of those finish-the-chapter-and-instantly-flip-the-page books that make reading exciting. The writing is clever, the plot twists are startling, the action heart-pounding.Wading through some of the reviews on Amazon and various other sites, I came across a significant amount of negative feedback for this book. One of the reasons that seems to veer the reviews toward a lower rating is the switch in narrator for The Silver Hand. The first person narration style continues through all the books in the Song of Albion, and in this second book, the narrator is switched from Llew to Tegid the Bard. I welcomed the change in narration, as three large novels told in first-person using the same character seems just a little tiresome to say the least. So, that said, it was wonderful seeing a change in perspective and the scenery described from the view of a new character.

The story itself is of a level twice what The Paradise War (Song Of Albion: Book 1) was, which doesn’t make the first novel bad by comparison, it simply makes the trilogy as a whole play out with hierarchal pacing from book to book. The characters that have been spanned over both the books have a chance for more development, and the new ones introduced fit in seamlessly with the old veterans.

One particular review I read on Amazon makes reference to a lot of parallels this book allegedly has with scripture and Christian themes in general. For me, those comparisons to Christianity seemed like a bit of a stretch, and I would actually go as far as to say this could easily pass as a secular book; the Christian parallels seemed about as palpable as they do in The Lord of the Rings. There are various themes you could quite easily take from the book as inspiration to the Christian life, but I think drawing direct and obvious parallels is a bit optimistic. Or, as Lawhead himself states:

A great many readers find messages in my books, but I believe the message you take away as a reader is one that you brought with you. Perhaps the story helped you discover the message–put you in a frame of mind to explore a subject you might not have thought about in the same way on your own, say–but you were the source all along. I say this because so many readers find so many different ‘messages’ in my stories that, if intentional, no one book could possibly contain them all and remain intelligible to anyone.

Click here to visit Stephen Lawhead’s website.

Reviewed by Jon: 6 out of 10.

[Kiss, by Ted Dekker and Erin Healy] A new kind of suspense from Dekker and Healy – where Heart Pounding meets Heart Warming.

The title of this book would, under normal circumstances, be somewhat of a stereotypical put-off for my tastes as a reader. But with someone like Dekker as a co-author, I simply dove into it headlong and asked questions later.

Seeing my rating you are probably wondering what those questions are. Chief among them would have to be why on earth this book simply did not strike any chords with me. It had every element you could possibly hope for in a good book: a well thought out story, somewhat inspiring characters, action, underlying themes of strong Christian morality, and to top it all off, a nice blazing conspiracy.

One of the things I disliked most was the whole business about memory stealing. Without giving too much away, one of the characters has this rather odd ability to steal memories from other people given the right circumstances (it all kind of ties into the title of the book in its own way). But, in all honesty, whenever I read anything about this bizarre ‘gift’ I felt like someone on the outside observing text on sheets of paper in a glue-bound book; I didn’t feel involved in the circumstances at all, possibly because my suspension of disbelief came crashing to the floor when this character first started stealing these memories.

The action side of things felt like a flat rollercoaster with corkscrews every quarter mile. You would think that things were finally starting to heat up, and then, just as quickly, it would simmer back down again like a faulty element. I do love the fact that Dekker worked on something besdies a thriller and expanded his scope a rather large amount, but it felt too much like the action was supposed to be the driving force of the book, and so when it failed to deliver the goods and entice you, the other great factors of the book seemed disappointing by comparison.

This, I suppose, is where it all comes down to personal taste and opinions, and since this book does indeed have a good story I am not at all surprised at the ample five star ratings it is receiving from many book review sites. If you like romance mixed with a medium sprinkling of suspense and possibly a little drama, then definitely read this book. If I went into it knowing it wasn’t going to be a typical Dekker boil-over I probably would have enjoyed the ride far more. So if you go into it expecting a dramatic love story, you will probably be pleasantly surprised.

Click here to visit ErinHealy.com
Click here to visit TedDekker.com

Reviewed by Stephen: 8 out of 10.

Shane Johnson has an imagination worthy of any fiction writer. He jumps from fantasy and sci-fi to historical fiction with ease.

Chayatocha (pronounced “kie-ah-toe-ka”) by Shane Johnson, follows the tale of a wagon train bound for the Oregon Territory in the mid 1800s. Already struggling with the hardships of the trail, the group of pioneer families make a fateful decision when they turn away from a supposed Indian massacre and head for an uncharted pass through the mountains. There they discover something far more deadly than renegade Indians.

The first thing I was aware of, even as little as one paragraph into this book, was that Shane Johnson sure knows how to write. This carried on throughout the whole book, which was just as eloquently written as the first parts that initially grabbed me. This immediately gave Shane Johnson a headstart to a good reception of his work. The storyline itself was not particularly astounding, but the way it was written made it feel like it was.

In a horror story, the majority of the tension always comes from the unknown. As things begin to get more familiar, the tension ebbs. If a writer is not aware of this, they can completely ruin an otherwise great story by revealing the unknown factors that are keeping the excitement much too quickly. In Chayatocha, Johnson had to remove some of the mystery early on in order to tell the rest of the story. He does this in much of the latter part of the novel where he reveals Chayatocha’s origin and brings Daniel Paradine’s own spiritual journey to a climax. It almost worked, but I thought that the whole middle part of the book stretched out too long and I lost a lot of the tension that built so strongly in the first few chapters. It didn’t ruin the story, but definitely slowed it down.

The only other thing that brought the book down for me was the Chayatocha constantly referred to itself in the plural with words like “we”, “us” and “our”. It had to be done for various reasons which I won’t give away, but all I kept thinking of was Smeagol and his alter-ego, Gollum, whenever I read it! “It’s oursssssssssss, precious.”

*Ahem* Still, it was a remarkable story with a refreshingly different and remarkably interesting setting. So all things consider I would still say “highly recommended”.